The Common Nighthawk Is Your Gateway Bird to the Weird, Wonderful World of Nightjars

Peerrnt! The nasal cry is sharp sufficient to penetrate site visitors noise on the streets beneath. Trying up from the sidewalk, we see the supply: a pigeon-sized fowl with lengthy, angular wings, brown with a white slash throughout every pointed wingtip. Its jerky, zigzag flight motion, with erratic fast-slow wingbeats, carries it excessive above the rooftops.

It’s a Frequent Nighthawk, however all the pieces about its title is deceptive. It’s not associated to hawks, and it’s extra lively at daybreak and nightfall than at evening. And though it’s nonetheless widespread, this species is turning into much less widespread in North American skies.

Typically a nighthawk is seen at a distance and in movement. However even up shut and at relaxation, it retains a glance of thriller. Massive head hunched down onto its shoulders, lengthy wingtips folded again over the tail, it squats on the bottom or on a horizontal department, camouflaged in mottled brown. Its large, darkish eyes betray no expression. Its brief beak, trimmed by bristles, seems to be absurdly small—till it opens its mouth vast, revealing a cavernous opening as large as its head, good for scooping up giant bugs in flight.

A century in the past, extra People knew this fowl, usually by its nickname of “bullbat.” Its aerial acrobatics and whooshing show flights had been widespread sights on summer time evenings over open nation—and over cities as properly. Nighthawks had all the time nested on the bottom, laying their two eggs on naked soil, and so they found flat gravel roofs as worthy substitutes.

Their big selection and daylight exercise made Frequent Nighthawks probably the most accessible representatives of the nightjars (household Caprimulgidae). Nightjars, as a gaggle, are among the many most poorly recognized of all birds. The scientific household title reveals long-standing confusion: “Caprimulgidae” interprets roughly to “milkers of goats,” reflecting an historic superstition that the Eurasian Nightjar, flitting via pastures at dusk, was there to steal milk from the grazing animals. Even the phrase “nightjar” appears odd, however “jar” right here refers to a jarring, discordant sound, just like the churring music of the Eurasian species.

Mysterious although they’re, nightjars reside alongside people on six continents, with virtually 100 species recognized. About 10 are crepuscular like nighthawks, foraging at daybreak and nightfall, however most species are strictly nocturnal and infrequently seen. All are shades of brown or gray-brown with mottled patterns. Males of some have distinctive plumes, like the fantastic Pennant-winged Nightjar of Africa or the Lyre-tailed Nightjar of South America, however most are fairly comparable and exhausting to separate even when seen properly.

Scientists have bravely struggled to invent English descriptors to tell apart between these lookalike birds, however a reputation like “Tawny-collared Nightjar” means little when most of its family members even have pale neck markings. Names utilized to most family members at the moment are boring and unhelpful (though the Diabolical Nightjar, from Sulawesi, earns just a few factors for intrigue). The most effective nightjar labels are in North America, the place a number of had been named for his or her voices.

Thus, Jap Whip-poor-wills and Mexican Whip-poor-wills cry out one thing like whip-prr-WEELL! incessantly on moonlit summer time nights. Chuck-will’s-widows chant their title in deep, throaty tones from southern forests. The whistled poor-WILL-ip of the Frequent Poorwill echoes in arid western canyons. Naturalists searching for the callers at evening may even see their eyeshine reflecting in headlight or flashlight beams, or see the birds foraging, swift shadows swooping about to seize bugs within the air. Found in daylight, they sit immobile, counting on camouflage; if approached too intently, they flush from the bottom, flying away low to hunt one other hiding place.

At one time, nearly all of People in all probability had been acquainted with nighthawks by sight or with their nocturnal kin by sound. In the present day these birds are including to their sense of thriller by performing a vanishing act, turning into much more elusive yearly. By some estimates, Frequent Nighthawks have misplaced 50 p.c of their complete numbers since 1970. Populations and developments of different nightjars are exhausting to measure because it’s virtually inconceivable to get correct counts, however most are in all probability shedding floor. This echoes a basic decline in numbers of aerial insectivores—birds that catch flying bugs within the air—and raises alarms for the longer term.

Metropolis-nesting nighthawks could also be vanishing as flat gravel roofs are changed by different supplies, and their eggs or younger could also be weak to predation by growing city colonies of crows. They and different nightjars are doubtless additionally affected by the overall lower in insect populations.

However we are able to take constructive steps. In a number of cities, together with Chicago, group packages monitor nighthawks yearly, in peak breeding season in early summer time or throughout fall migration in August and September. And efforts to halt insect declines, resembling reining in overuse of pesticides and lowering pointless out of doors lighting, could be useful for all aerial insectivores. Even when the nighthawks stay excessive overhead, even when their extra secretive cousins stay nothing greater than voices at midnight, they assist to keep up a contact of avian thriller in our lives.

This story initially ran within the Summer time 2026 subject as “Strangers within the Evening.” To obtain our print journal, turn out to be a member by making a donation today.